Name: Cassandra Tang's review of 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari
Item: 21 Lessons for the 21st Century
Rating: 4.5
Author: Cassandra Tang

Yuval Noah Harari

In Sapiens, he explored our past. In Homo Deus, he looked to our future. Now, one of the most innovative thinkers on the planet turns to the present to make sense of today's most pressing issues. How do computers and robots change the meaning of being human? How do we deal with the epidemic of fake news? Are nations and religions still relevant? What should we teach our children? Yuval Noah Harari's 21 Lessons for the 21st Century is a probing and visionary investigation into today's most urgent issues as we move into the uncharted territory of the future. As technology advances faster than our understanding of it, hacking becomes a tactic of war, and the world feels more polarized than ever, Harari addresses the challenge of navigating life in the face of constant and disorienting change and raises the important questions we need to ask ourselves in order to survive. In twenty-one accessible chapters that are both provocative and profound, Harari builds on the ideas explored in his previous books, untangling political, technological, social, and existential issues and offering advice on how to prepare for a very different future from the world we now live in: How can we retain freedom of choice when Big Data is watching us? What will the future workforce look like, and how should we ready ourselves for it? How should we deal with the threat of terrorism? Why is liberal democracy in crisis? Harari's unique ability to make sense of where we have come from and where we are going has captured the imaginations of millions of readers. Here he invites us to consider values, meaning, and personal engagement in a world full of noise and uncertainty. When we are deluged with irrelevant information, clarity is power. Presenting complex contemporary challenges clearly and accessibly, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century is essential reading.

21 Lessons for the 21st Century

Cassandra Tang

The problem with evil is that in real life, it is not necessarily ugly. It can look very beautiful.

Most stories are held together by the weight of their roof rather than by the strength of their foundations.

To run fast, don’t take much luggage with you. Leave all your illusions behind. They are very heavy.

We cannot be sure of the specifics, but change itself is the only certainty.

If you are willing to pay for high-quality food, clothes and cars – why aren’t you willing to pay for high-quality information?

The greatest crimes in modern history resulted not just from hatred and greed, but even more so from ignorance and indifference.

Questions you cannot answer are usually far better for you than answers you cannot question.

If you don’t feel at home in your body, you will never feel at home in the world.

As George Orwell envisioned in Nineteen Eighty-Four, the television will watch us while we are watching it. After we’ve finished watching Tarantino’s entire filmography, we may have forgotten most of it. But Netflix, or Amazon, or whoever owns the TV algorithm, will know our personality type, and how to press our emotional buttons.

Governments might therefore need to invent entirely new taxes – perhaps an information tax, paid on information and in information rather than in dollars.

Humans think in stories rather than in facts, numbers or equations, and the simpler the story, the better.

Nick Gracilla

Extraordinary and beautifully written book that everyone should read at least once in their life.

Elisavet Rozaki 

In order of likeness:
1. Sapiens
2. 21 Lessons for the 21st Century
3. Homo Deus

Overall I thought this book was mediocre. Perhaps I expect too much impact from this type of book. The only perceivable impact this book has had on me is a pro-AI shift. I was previously cautiously agnostic on it.

Harari's references to Ukraine/Russia and Palestine/Israel remain poignant more, 6 years later, perhaps even more so.

I don't know if I've read (listened to) this at the wrong time for me, or maybe audiobooks just aren't the right method of consumption for me at the moment, but I definitely find myself lacking the inspiration I expected from this book.

Liam Richardson

Overall I thought this book was mediocre. Perhaps I expect too much impact from this type of book. The only perceivable impact this book has had on me is a pro-AI shift. I was previously cautiously agnostic on it.

Harari's references to Ukraine/Russia and Palestine/Israel remain poignant more, 6 years later, perhaps even more so.

I don't know if I've read (listened to) this at the wrong time for me, or maybe audiobooks just aren't the right method of consumption for me at the moment, but I definitely find myself lacking the inspiration I expected from this book.

Amena Elkayal

Jeffrey Jose

Some portions of this text are phenomenal, specifically the chapter named 'Humility'. Sections of gloom-and-doom of technology and privacy was rather misplaced, and it sounded similar to what you'd read from ill-informed journalists.

Even though it refers to several portions from Sapiens, and sometimes outright repeats it (Humans like stories ..), the book is worth a read.

Lord Aragorn

Another great read from Yuval Noah Harari. The book started off well but the latter half felt a bit like a stream of consciousness rather than tied carefully to the title ("21 lessons ..."). However each chapter as an individual essay is also fascinating and worth a read.

Landon Alder

Overall, I really liked this book. It addresses so many interesting topics (AI, political ideologies, religious ideologies, climate change, war, fake news, etc) in a way that is approachable and can be quite insightful. I learned a lot of historical context from it around how various myths, ideologies, and lies have shaped various countries and movements, which was super interesting. He also spends a lot of time discussing the issues we’re going to deal with in the near future, such as job loss from automation, algorithms becoming better at manipulating out emotions, and growing nationalism in the US and UK.

There were many parts were it started to feel like he was rambling on about a given point much longer than was needed and I don’t agree with all of his critiques of religion, but that doesn’t disqualify this book from definitely being worth a read

Nelson Zagalo

Adoro Harari. Adorei os dois primeiros livros — "Sapiens" (2011) e "Homo Deus" (2015). "21 Lessons for the 21st Century" (2018) é um livro diferente dos anteriores, nota-se que foi escrito de forma muito mais rápida, menos amadurecida, mais como resposta ou encomenda, o que ele próprio confirma quando diz que queria responder às perguntas que lhe foram fazendo nos últimos dois anos enquanto foi apresentando os anteriores livros pelo mundo fora. Na verdade este livro nada oferece de novo, lê-se como uma repetição dos argumentos já anteriormente esgrimidos, aos quais se adicionaram uns pózinhos de atualidade, e ainda uma ligeira variação do discurso, tornando o tom menos especulativo num mais assertivo.

Quanto às respostas que Harari tem para as perguntas das pessoas, não posso dizer que tenha pena de não as dar, já que sempre considerei que aquilo que as pessoas perguntam nestes domínios, não é para ser respondido, mas antes para servir de objeto de dialéticas. Aliás, é no mínimo estranho que Harari insista tanto em dizer que não sabemos como serão as nossas vidas em 2050, menos ainda em 2100, e depois aceite tentar dar respostas sobre "O Sentido da Vida". Se quisesse resumir as 21 respostas dadas por Harari, diria que se sintetizam em 3 grandes chavões:

"United Colours of Benetton" (Temos de aprender a viver em harmonia colectiva)
"Aprender, Desaprender e Reaprender" (Teremos de aprender ao longo da vida)
"Mindfullness" (O caminho para enfrentar a velocidade da vida está na meditação)

Pois é, mesmo para alguém tão brilhante como Harari, dar respostas novas ou diferentes é difícil. Aliás, é um pouco como ele diz no início do livro, os filósofos andam há milhares de anos a tentar responder ao sentido da vida e até agora nada. Pois, o mesmo para Harari, ainda que tenha tentado responder baseado nos ditos dos Monti Python, era difícil ir além fosse por que via fosse, o que não tem mal algum, o que conta é a discussão. Neste sentido, recomendo vivamente a leitura a quem ainda não leu os anteriores dois livros, os restantes podem passar.

Deixo alguns excertos que achei interessantes:

“On 7 December 2017 a critical milestone was reached, not when a computer defeated a human at chess – that’s old news – but when Google’s AlphaZero program defeated the Stockfish 8 program. Stockfish 8 was the world’s computer chess champion for 2016. It had access to centuries of accumulated human experience in chess, as well as to decades of computer experience. It was able to calculate 70 million chess positions per second. In contrast, AlphaZero performed only 80,000 such calculations per second, and its human creators never taught it any chess strategies – not even standard openings. Rather, AlphaZero used the latest machine-learning principles to self-learn chess by playing against itself. Nevertheless, out of a hundred games the novice AlphaZero played against Stockfish, AlphaZero won twenty-eight and tied seventy-two. It didn’t lose even once. Since AlphaZero learned nothing from any human, many of its winning moves and strategies seemed unconventional to human eyes. They may well be considered creative, if not downright genius.
Can you guess how long it took AlphaZero to learn chess from scratch, prepare for the match against Stockfish, and develop its genius instincts? Four hours. “That’s not a typo. For centuries, chess was considered one of the crowning glories of human intelligence. AlphaZero went from utter ignorance to creative mastery in four hours, without the help of any human guide.”

“Human power depends on mass cooperation, mass cooperation depends on manufacturing mass identities – and all mass identities are based on fictional stories, not on scientific facts or even on economic necessities.”

“I am aware that many people might be upset by my equating religion with fake news, but that’s exactly the point. When a thousand people believe some made-up story for one month – that’s fake news. When a billion people believe it for a thousand years – that’s a religion, and we are admonished not to call it ‘fake news’ in order not to hurt the feelings of the faithful (or incur their wrath).
(..)
Again, some people may be offended by my comparison of the Bible with Harry Potter. If you are a scientifically minded Christian you might explain away all the errors, myths and contradictions in the Bible by arguing that the holy book was never meant to be read as a factual account, but rather as a metaphorical story containing deep wisdom. But isn’t that true of Harry Potter too?
(..)
On 29 August 1255 the body of a nine-year-old English boy called Hugh was found in a well in the town of Lincoln. Even in the absence of Facebook and Twitter, rumour quickly spread that Hugh was ritually murdered by the local Jews. The story only grew with retelling, and one of the most renowned English chroniclers of the day – Matthew Paris – provided a detailed and gory description of how prominent Jews from throughout England gathered in Lincoln to fatten up, torture and finally crucify the abducted child. Nineteen Jews were tried and executed for the alleged murder. Similar blood libels became popular in other English towns, leading to a series of pogroms in which whole communities were massacred. Eventually, in 1290 the entire Jewish population of England was expelled.
The story didn’t end there. A century after the expulsion of the Jews from England, Geoffrey Chaucer – the Father of English literature – included a blood libel modelled on the story of Hugh of Lincoln in the Canterbury Tales (‘The Prioress’s Tale’). The tale culminates with the hanging of the Jews. Similar blood libels subsequently became a staple part of every anti-Semitic movement from late medieval Spain to modern Russia. A distant echo can even be heard in the 2016 ‘fake news’ story that Hillary Clinton headed a child-trafficking network that held children as sex slaves in the basement of a popular pizzeria. Enough Americans believed that story to hurt Clinton’s election campaign, and one person even came armed with a gun to the pizzeria and demanded to see the basement (it turned out that the pizzeria had no basement).
As for Hugh of Lincoln himself, nobody knows how he really found his death, but he was buried in Lincoln Cathedral and was venerated as a saint. He was reputed to perform various miracles, and his tomb continued to draw pilgrims even centuries after the expulsion of all Jews from England. Only in 1955 – ten years after the Holocaust – did Lincoln Cathedral repudiate the blood libel, placing a plaque near Hugh’s tomb which reads:
'Trumped-up stories of ‘ritual murders’ of Christian boys by Jewish communities were common throughout Europe during the Middle Ages and even much later. These fictions cost many innocent Jews their lives. Lincoln had its own legend and the alleged victim was buried in the Cathedral in the year 1255. Such stories do not redound to the credit of Christendom.'
Well, some fake news lasts only 700 years.”

Mounir Bashour

As good as Homo Sapiens better than Homo Deus

Angel Martinez

Although there were some parts that seemed like a reach to me, this definitely gave me enough brain juice to last the rest of my life. (Will constantly refer to the notes I took, an endless repository of late night conversation starters.) Definitely getting my hands on Sapiens as soon as this enhanced community quarantine is over and done with!!!

Kyle S

I want to begin that j would give this book 3.5 stars if that were an option. Harari has a lot to say and he says it well, but, unlike his previous work in Sapians, 21 Lessons is more of an editorial than an actual summary of his research. At times it's captivating and hard to put down, other times it feels like he goes on and on about topics without a clear reason why. This is one of those books I think is written more for the author and less for the audience. However Harari's arguments and concerns are so well written it's hard to escape this book, even if you disagree with what he says.

Tyler Urquhart

this book changed my perspective on so many global issues and future obstacles. It got me excited about politics and culture again!

Shares insights into such present-day issues as the role of technology in transforming humanity, the epidemic of false news, and the modern relevance of nations and religion

Mirella Hetekivi

Holy crap. This is without a doubt one of the most important books of our time. Mind blown.

Hazal Özlem

** spoiler alert **
           Yuval Noah Harari’nin Saphiens’teki çok küçük subjektif yaklaşımları gözüme çok batmadığı için bu kitabını da aynı hevesle okuyacağımı düşünmüştüm fakat sonuç hüsran. Kitap genellikle durmadan başa dönen birkaç terim içinde sıkışıp kalmış gibi bir his uyandırdı bende. Bu kitap yazarın görüşlerini daha fazla içerdiğinden bir takım tartışmaya açık savlar, ve ardından sanki bu savlardan duyulan şüphelerle bir takım ifadeleri yumuşatmalar gözüme hoş görünmedi. Makine öğrenmesi, küresel ısınma, veri güvenliği gibi güncel konuları işleyişini oldukça beğenmeme rağmen sürekli tekrar edilmesi bana hitap etmedi, kitabın son bölümü Meditasyon’u oldukça beğendim. Bana kalırsa bu kitap 21 Ders adı yerine 5 Ders adı ile daha öz, tekrardan uzak olarak yayınlansaydı çok daha başarılı olabilirdi.

An innovative thinker attempts to make sense of today's most pressing issues in the face of constant and disorienting change. He raises the important questions people must ask in order to survive.

Max Bodach

Decent, but mostly common sense stuff that you pick up on in Sapiens and Homo Deus

Caroline Lewicki

Had to read this for school but I actually really enjoyed it. A fascinating look at how dependent we are on technology and how that could backfire on us, how fake news has always been a part of our lives and how essential critical thinking is. I highly recommend this!

Safiya 

It felt like reading a long newspaper article, and it is utterly discursive.
Yes, agreed that it is truly a great intention to unify the contemporary context in one book, but its price was a clear incoherence of the parts. (The Whole is Greater than the Sum of its Parts kind of dilemma... maybe)
And what a deep disappointment it was, there is a hiatus between what he wrote and what I've heard about this book (or for that matter read) from fans and reviewers..
Not my first time with Yuval, I have listened to him talk about his book Sapiens and humanity with Russel Brand (Under the Skin Podcast), as a matter of fact I was real surprised after reading this book.
Strangely, I found Giddens' book "Runaway World: How Globalisation Is Reshaping Our Lives" more informative and relevant, although written in the 90's...
After all, it was a mistake I guess to start by reading his latest book...
"Human stupidity is a historical force..."

Bryan Maniotakis

It’s probably just being online so much, but I’m so tired of these same political discussions, and if I knew this book was so full of the topic I probably would have passed. 

I was glad to get through the first 75% percent of the book to the discover the meditation and secular topics, but again, they felt like coles notes because of the chapter length limitation.

Diana Platgalve

As much as I appreciate Yuval Noah Harari, this book was quite a disappointment. Seems like Harari is repeating his ideas from his first two editions “Sapiens” and “Homo Deus” to the point that it becomes a bit disturbing. His main thoughts are related with overcoming our own biases, proposing meditation, questioning and paying money for good information. As lessons themselves comes-pretty actual!

**THE NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER** The future is here. Learn to live in it. In twenty-one bite-sized lessons, Yuval Noah Harari explores what it means to be human in an age of bewilderment. How can we protect ourselves from nuclear war, ecological cataclysms and technological disruptions? What can we do about the epidemic of fake news or the threat of terrorism? What should we teach our children? Yuval Noah Harari takes us on a thrilling journey through today’s most urgent issues. The golden thread running through his exhilarating new book is the challenge of maintaining our collective and individual focus in the face of constant and disorienting change. Are we still capable of understanding the world we have created? ‘Fascinating... compelling... [Harari] has teed up a crucial global conversation about how to take on the problems of the 21st century’ Bill Gates, New York Times ‘Truly mind-expanding... Ultra-topical’ Guardian ‘21 Lessons is, simply put, a crucial book’ Adam Kay

Elena Garcia Navarro

4.5*

Great analysis of the issues we're currently facing worldwide and the possibilities and outcomes those could eventually lead into. Harari explores concerns we are all very acquainted with such as terrorism and the rise of national extreme right-wing parties but also tackles some not so well-known by the main public developments like the huge advances in technology and how little by little algorithms and AI are sizing control and manipulating all aspects of our day-to-day lives, even if we still are not aware about the consequences of this or do not give much relevance to the matter (i.e the alarming influence social media and online presence are having on human beings).

I would 100% recommend the audiobook which is narrated by Derek Perkins (which narrated as well both of Harari's previous books: Sapiens and Home Deus). He does and excellent job and I think it's the best format in which to consume his novels.

Ivaylo Durmonski

What struck me the most after reading 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari is the importance of having a clear vision about the future. But not our personal future. Rather, where we're going as a species and what we should do to make the world a better place? It might sound cliche-ish but if we continue doing what we're doing our kids might inherit a broken world. Read all my notes: https://durmonski.com/book-summaries/...

Heather

Jeremy Cote

Note: I received an ARC from NetGalley.

This book was fantastic. I loved reading Homo Deus, which is why I wanted to read this book in the first place. I was a bit cautious about the book, since the title put me off (I don't like titles that are lists), but thankfully the book is not just a big list. Instead, it's a unified whole. Each chapter flows to the next, and the topics are all interesting. I found myself interested in each topic the author discussed. He includes plenty of citations, and each chapter gave me something to chew on for the next century. We have a lot of work to do if we want to get things right in society.

I highly recommend reading this book.

Nick Gracilla &
21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari

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